I really want to like the new Steam Machine. It looks lovely, like a modern-day GameCube with a flashy LED streak, and a customisable front where you can add your own touches, such as a wooden panel. Steam Deck has also proved Valve can make a user-friendly OS for gamers that works, without the compatibility problems that plagued the original Steam Machines all those years ago. There’s just one problem with it – the GPU.
Valve’s new Steam Machine specs start off well with a 6-core Zen 4 CPU that can boost to 4.8GHz, and that bit is solid. However, the GPU is a custom part based on AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture with 28 compute units. Assuming it maintains the basic structure of other AMD RDNA 3 GPUs, that means it has 1,792 stream processors and 28 RT cores – looking just like the Radeon RX 7600M laptop chip, but with its higher TDP (110W vs 90W) enabling a higher sustained boost clock of 2.45GHz, compared with a 2,070MHz game clock and 2,410MHz boost clock on the 7600M.
This core spec is a step below the entry-level Radeon RX 7600 desktop GPU, and it’s also a fair way behind the iGPUs in AMD’s latest Strix Halo chips, which can have up to 40 compute units. As a point of comparison, the base-level PS5, which came out five years ago, has an RDNA 2 GPU with 36 compute units.
| Steam Machine | |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Zen 4 (6-core / 12 threads), up to 4.8GHz, 30W TDP |
| GPU | AMD RDNA 3, 28 CUs, 110W TDP, 2.45GHz sustained max boost clock |
| RAM | 16GB DDR5 system memory 8GB GDDR6 VRAM |
| Storage | 512GB or 2TB NVMe SSD, high-speed microSD slot |
| Wireless connections | Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, integrated 2.4GHz Steam Controller adapter |
| Display outputs | 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2.0 |
| USB ports | Front: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1Type-A Back: 2x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1 x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 |
| Wired networking | Gigabit Ethernet |
| Dimensions | 156 x 462 x 152mm (W x D x H) including feet |
| Weight | 2.6kg |
There are several problems here, but the main one for me is the use of AMD’s ageing RDNA 3 architecture in a machine coming out in 2026. RDNA 3 will be four years old by that point, and let’s also remember that it struggled against the Nvidia competition even then. RDNA has solid raster performance, but its ray tracing performance is substantially lacking, particularly on the Radeon RX 7600, and its AI matrix cores are comparatively rudimentary. In an age when even the most powerful GPUs are struggling to run new games based on the latest Unreal Engine, kitting out your new console with a four-year-old GPU that struggles with ray tracing doesn’t look like the one.
Valve makes a bold statement on its website that looks set to come and bite it on its posterior in the future as well. It boasts that the Steam Machine can handle “4K gaming at 60fps with FSR”, which raises a whole load of questions. We quite liked the Radeon RX 7600 when it came out, but it’s only really good for gaming at 1080p, and the Steam Machine’s GPU is even less powerful. We have to really hope that by “FSR” Valve either means a variation of FSR 4 with INT8 instructions that run on RDNA 3’s AI cores, or perhaps what’s coming with FSR Redstone. If Valve is really looking at using FSR 3 on the Ultra Performance preset to make this GPU run games at 4K, then your games are going to look really horrible.
Most baffling to me, though, is the fact that the Steam Machine GPU is a discrete chip with its own dedicated 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM. The choice of a basic RDNA 3 GPU would make sense in a machine based on an APU, where you have limited options. After all, Intel and Nvidia’s custom x86 GeForce chips are still in the works, and going with an Nvidia Tegra chip brings all the problems associated with running x86 software on an Arm CPU. But it’s a discrete chip, so the options were huge. A Radeon RX 9060 XT would have been a massively better choice here, with much better ray tracing performance and full support for FSR 4. The only reason I can fathom to go with such an underpowered GPU is pricing, so let’s hope the Steam Machine is cheap – it will need to be in the Xbox Series S league if it’s going to compete here.
But doesn’t Steam Deck have an underpowered, old GPU too? Indeed it does, even the new Steam Deck OLED uses the same very simple GPU based on the RDNA 2 architecture. However, Steam Deck is in a league of its own. Its main competitors, aside from Switch, use Windows and, despite their best efforts, still mainly suffer from the usability problems associated with putting a desktop OS on a tiny screen controlled with thumbsticks. To be fair, the Xbox ROG Ally mitigates this to an extent with its controller-centric UI, but the Steam Deck does it better. With access to the PC’s huge gaming back catalogue, and a handheld-friendly OS, Steam Deck has carved out a niche for itself.
The Steam Machine will be up against much stiffer competition, not least from PS5 and Xbox, but also good old-fashioned desktop PCs that can have much more powerful hardware. Its main benefit against the latter is that it will give you access to loads of PC games in a user-friendly interface on your TV, but I’m not sure this is enough when you’ll be scrapping with big-name consoles as well, especially with such an underpowered GPU.
All of which is a shame, because I definitely think there’s a gap in the market for a Steam Machine that can bring the benefits of SteamOS and PC gaming to your living room. Maybe we’ll see a Steam Machine Pro in the future that can actually deliver the goods.
